Railway-hopper-car door



Patented Au. 9, .1927.

UNITED STATES PATIENT, 'oFFIcs.

WALTER P. MURPHY, 'OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 UNION METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

RAILWAY-HOPPER-CAR noon.

Application filed August 14, 1925. Serial No. 50,232.

The invention relates to a railway dump car-having a door forming a part of the car for retaining the load therein, which door is provided with hinges adjacent one of its sides and is capable of being dropped or swung open so that the load in discharging slides or passes over the upper surface of the door. .Any means of raising the door to the closed position and any means for locking and releasing the doormay be employed with my device.

A door for this purpose must be very strong and durable because:

First, it is part ofthe floor of the car and as such must sustain the load as well as the impact blow when the car is in mo tion. Second, the car is frequently load-ed from chutes or tipples from a height of ten feet or more. causing the load to be dropped directly upon the doors. Third, clam shell buckets are frequently used to unload such cars and it is not uncommon for these buckets to rest upon and drag over the the doors. Fourth, when the door suddenly comes to rest after beingdropped, it is not only subject to severe shock but it must sustain the sever impact thrust of the load which, of course, follows the door. Fifth, as the load is theoretically equally distributed, the door must be strong over its entire area and must be capable of transmitting the resulting strains to the car body without much deflection and no substantial distortion. Any bending of the door or drooping of the corners would cause a leak of the lading, especially of such fine material as sand, chats, etc. Any bending or warping might interfere with the complete closing and locking of the door.

As it costs as much to haul a ton of car as it does to haul a ton of paying freight, it is imperative that the car and any part thereof be as light as possible. Furthermore, the total weight of the car and freight is deter mined by the strength of certain standard axles, so that the lighter the car the greater amount of freight a given car will be al- .lowed to carry.

The object'of the invention is to obtain a strong, light and inexpensive door.

The advantages of my door are appli cable on any door of a freight car over which the lading moves when being discharged from the car, such as drop bottom 'ure 1. a

general service cars (used'in the drawings) hopper cars, swinging side doors or hopper bottom coal cars, etc.

. In the drawings:

Figure -l, shows a portion of a, railwa car with my device applied thereto.

Figure 2'is a section on line2f2iof Fig ure 1 showing the door. in open position.-

Figure'3'is a-section on line of Fig F igure 4 is an enlarged section through a corrugated portion of the door.

To illustrate the adaptation of my device, I haveshown a so-called general service drop bottom gondola car wherein the major portion of the floor consists of drop floors. The hinge-beams are hinged to the center construction and aresupported adjacent the side wall by the raising or looking mecha nism. Any convenient stop, such as 2, may be used to limit the downward movement of the door.

The doors are made of a metallic plate (preferably of steel) reinforced with parallel integral ribs or corrugations 3, extending continuously between the opposite edges of the door opening and terminating so as to form a flat margin between the ends of the corrugations and the side of the door, which flat margin 4 engages the adjacent portion of the car and forms a tight joint. The corrugations 3 extend substantially to the edge of the door opening so as to reinforce that part of the door against which the cargo rests. The hinge-beams 5 are supported at their opposite ends to the car bodyand are preferably positioned as to divide the length 7 of the door into quarters so when the corrugations are positioned normal to the hinges a very efficient design of double supported beams with overhanging end portions is obtained. However, the corrugations may be positioned parallel to the hinges and still come within the scope of the invention.

The corrugations comprlse main walls or- .iml

beam. The corrugations may be pressed upwardly or downwardly or partially each way. (The corrugations are shown pressed downwardly from the plate, but, of course, when they are pressed upwardly the function of the portions 7 and 8 are reversed.) The connecting portions 7 are substantially the same width as the portions 8 thus the neutral axis 1010 is midway between the planes bounding the opposite apexes of the corrugations. As steel is practically equal in tensile and compressive strength this ar rangement'gives a balanced beam.

The webs 6 continue in a straight line between the opposite ends of the corrugation, so that the connecting portions 7 are of a constant width for an equal distance on opposite sides of the center line of the car (the major portion of the corrugation) but at the termination of the corrugation they increase in width until they merge into the original plane oi' the plate adjacent the ends of the webs. The portion 8 of the plate remains constant in width throughout the entire length of the corrugation.

What I claim is:

1. In a railway car having a door opening, a door hinged adjacent one edge thereof and supported at the opposite edge thereof, said door made of a metallicplate formed with integral reinforcements comprising spaced apart webs and flat connecting portions parallelto the original plane of the plate of greater width than said webs;

2. In a railway car havinga door opening, a door hinged adjacent one edge thereof and supported at the opposite edge thereof, said door'made of a metallic plate formed with integral reinforcements comprising spaced apart webs and flat connecting portions. parallel to the original plane of the plate of greater width than said webs, said door having flat portions between said rein forcements of substantially the same width as said connecting portions. 7

\VALTER P. MURPHY. 

